The Bears knocked off the Lions yesterday, but unlikely there's much partying going on in Chicago. This is not a playoff team, and it's one with serious work to do before it's ready to be one of the NFC's top teams. And nearly losing to an undrafted quarterback making his first start is a reminder of the work that needs to be done.
Mitchell Trubisky:
The imperfection of NFL scouting departments is on full display whenever Trubisky, drafted ahead of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, takes the field. He's just not that good, and the occasional solid throws he makes and good statistical games he ends up with stand out primarily when looked at in comparison to the ones he skips along the turf at his receivers' feet, or that get easily jumped by defenders for turnovers or passes knocked away. If he's starting in Week 1 next year it's only because the Bears don't have much in the way of high draft picks with which to replace him, but more likely they'll end up with some veteran, maybe a Nick Foles type (or Foles himself). Worst play was a Trubisky scramble before the half that should have picked up a first down but his awareness of where he needed to get was poor. You're the quarterback, you need to know what's going on there. Poor instincts, not a great thing for a supposed franchise quarterback. I know: he threw for 338 yards and 3 TDs. Maybe won you some money in a daily league. If those totals against a terrible Lions pass defense convince the Bears to go with him next year, so be it.
David Blough:
It sometimes happens (Nick Mullens a year ago) that some nobody ends up getting thrust into the starting lineup at the last minute and performs well. The opposing team has been preparing for another guy, they don't have much film on the new starter, etc. Midway through the first quarter both Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones had caught touchdowns -- without looking it up I'm not sure if that had happened at any point with Matthew Stafford at quarterback. Blough played pretty well. Regrettably from the Lions standpoint, the offense did almost nothing from that point on, but it was nearly enough to win -- probably should have been, had Matt Patricia's staff tipped him off to late catch that should have been challenged. Anyway, Blough did well and if you're holding Jones or Golladay and need to start them the rest of the way, they should be OK with Driskel or Blough; maybe better with Blough.
Bears running backs:
A solid game out of David Montgomery. The Bears had been using Tarik Cohen more lately, but that went away in favor of Montgomery yesterday, right down to him catching the game-winning touchdown on a play that one might have expected to run by Cohen. The blocking isn't great for Montgomery but he looks like he'll be their starting running back for a while. Cohen is always going to be a disappointment -- a James White in a lesser passing game, working behind a main running back who catches the ball pretty well, too.
Lions running backs:
Bo Scarbrough looks fine; running hard. Just a two-down guy on a team that will lose most of the rest of its games, so he's not going to put up good numbers most weeks. J.D. McKissic and Ty Johnson sprinkle on in passing situations and as a change-of-pace, but they're not going to do anything noteworthy. I don't think the Lions will bring Kerryon Johnson back for Week 16, but they could; he'll be eligible to return then. The Lions haven't had a running identity for years and it's going to change the last four weeks of the season.
Bears receivers:
Allen Robinson was tearing it up early on. Anthony Miller was tearing it up late. Miller has been a disappointment to this point but it's how the offense has used/not used him, preferring instead to throw bombs to Taylor Gabriel, which works out only once in a while. Miller stepped up big time, although his big catch that set up the winning touchdown went through his hands and should really have been challenged by the Detroit. They didn't, and that's the fine line between winning and losing in the NFL.
Lions receivers:
Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones were the players most teams were starting or thinking about starting, and they didn't miss Jeff Driskel. Would have been nice to get a little more, what with most of the production coming in the first quarter, but you can't complain if you started either. Vikings (who the Lions offense had a big game against last time) and Bucs are the next two games, I'll be using these players there. Detroit threw a few nothing passes to Danny Amendola and T.J. Hockenson for some reason; why you want to pick up 2-3 yards on 2nd and 7 is beyond me. Hockenson left with a knee injury, I haven't seen the update but indications weren't good.
Looking ahead:
Bears next three games are against Dallas, the Vikings and Packers. I don't think we'll see Trubisky put up numbers anything close to yesterday in any of those games. David Montgomery should have promise in a couple of those. And it's encouraging to have a nice breakout game from Anthony Miller. ... Lions are at the Vikings next week, then host Tampa Bay in Week 15. Their wideouts should be OK this week and very good against the Bucs. They're at Denver in Week 16, which is iffier. I wonder if they won't shut Matthew Stafford down this week.